KALAMAZOO, MI -- Briana Wolverton, 23, a senior family studies major at Western Michigan University, said she was just getting ready for bed early Monday morning when she smelled smoke and saw an orange glow on the deck of her second-floor apartment at Village of Kalamazoo Apartments.

Wolverton said her boyfriend warned neighbors before they ran out of the apartment.

"It's all a blur. It seemed like forever but it could have been two minutes," Wolverton said Monday morning from the street outside the charred building on Lilac Lane just off West Michigan Avenue.

Seven people, including two children, were rescued from their balconies and one man was seriously burned and sent to the hospital, according to Lt. Matt Huber, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety commander at the scene.

It took about three hours for firefighters to extinguish the fire; one building of apartments was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived following a 911 call, Huber said.

Mario Peterson, 23, a junior studying public relations student at WMU, was visiting Wolverton when they noticed smoke and, from outdoors, an orange glow, he said. Peterson said he
first thought it might be a neighbor's balcony grill causing the smoke smell but grabbed a fire extinguisher when they looked out and saw flames spreading from the balcony above.

Peterson said he quickly determined the fire was widespread, so he sent Wolverton out of the building while he ran through the halls of the second and third floors pounding on doors and shouting to neighbors before exiting himself.

Neither he nor Wolverton was injured, but she said she is worried about her computer, books and flash drive that have likely been destroyed by the fire.

"I'm going to email my instructors in a little bit," she said.

The American Red Cross of Greater Kalamazoo volunteers are providing food and clothing for those who have been affected by fire. The Red Cross is also opening a shelter at Calvary Bible Church, 855 South Drake Road in Kalamazoo.